A prehistoric tooth was uncovered in a remote Russian cave, leading to new information about our long-lost human relatives.
As reported by Fox News, they are called Denisovans. The tooth was discovered from the Denisova cave in Siberia's Altai Mountains in 2012 and was extensively analyzed. According to experts, their findings showed that these people were around much earlier than previously thought.
Apart from the tooth, a piece of Denisovan finger bone and another tooth were discovered in the same cave in 2010 and 2000, respectively. These discoveries had been dated to be between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago.
According to Bence Viola, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto's Department of Anthropology, "The new tooth is 50,000 years older than the others — this is really interesting, it shows us these guys were around for a long time."
Viola added that the finger bone and the earlier tooth were from individuals that lived within a timespan of about 1,000 years apart from each other.
In a similar report by Laboratory Equipment, this obscure branch of the human tree of evolution survived for thousands of years in a remote mountain range in Siberia, but eventually died out and left genetic traces within the living Homo sapiens.
In addition, the genetic information about Denisovans was similar to that of the Neanderthals, but was different enough from both them and modern humans to give them a clear distinction as a separate species.
The two teeth found in the same region indicated that the Denisovans were not a fleeting populace, but, survived the harsh climate of southern Siberia for a long time.
According to researchers, the DNA of the tooth is more diverged and has accumulated fewer substitutions than the DNA of the other two specimens, suggesting that Denisovans were present in the region over an extended period of time.
Upon further analysis, the genome showed that they have contributed to the order of five percent of the DNA to the genomes of present-day people in Oceania and about 0.2 percent to the genomes of Native Americans and mainland Asians.
But according to The Weather Channel, not only a prehistoric human tooth was found recently. As reported, a massive fossilized shark tooth was found on the beach of North Carolina.
The six-inch tooth was reported to come from the Megalodon, which is a shark-like creature estimated to be about 60 feet long.
Experts said that the rain and high tides from the recent Hurricane Joaquin may be the cause why the teeth washed up ashore.
It seems that the beach goer who discovered the ancient giant shark tooth got more than nice views of the beach.
